Jets Talking Playoffs After Emotional Win Over Steelers

They will be playing in the postseason, they said after Sunday's nail-biter of a win over the
Steelers
at Heinz Field.

They promise.

"We're gonna make it one way or another," coach
Rex Ryan
said after the Jets' 22-17 win, which ended with the Steelers twice throwing into the end zone from the 10-yard-line in an attempt to pull out the win. "We're gonna take care of it ourselves."

In truth, the Jets' hard-fought and well-played win pretty much assures they are in. New York is two games up on Jacksonville and San Diego with two games left. They must go to Chicago and finish at home against Buffalo, so it would take an epic collapse for New York to miss. New York had one epic collapse Sunday, but that was by the team in the NFC, not the AFC.

After two disastrous weeks that saw the Jets get blown out by New England and lose to Miami at home, the Jets showed some grit and inner fortitude by visiting Pittsburgh and winning. The Steelers didn't exactly need the win, but the Jets still earned it.

Pittsburgh remains in first place in its division. Despite the loss, the Steelers still clinched a playoff spot, and season-ending games against Carolina and Cleveland make the path to a division title and first-round bye less than daunting.

But the Jets knew if they kicked this game away, they'd be in trouble. Which was why to a man, they said this win for them was "huge." And with a huge win returned the Jets the swagger that had been stifled the previous two weeks.

When he looked at the stat sheet and noticed his defense had given up 378 yards, he said it's more than he had been used to, then added: "Who cares?"

Not that he was mocking the Steelers. He wasn't. Ryan praised Pittsburgh over and over in saying how difficult it was to win. But he and his team knew the situation they were facing if they lost.

"Oh we needed it huge," Ryan said. "There's no question about that."

Perhaps that was why Ryan got all emotional Saturday night when addressing his team. Several players -- most notably safety
Dwight Lowery
-- said that speech was key to turning around the losing streak. Ryan hit on all the usual points, but evidently did it in a way that hit his players' nerves.

"He kept this team together," Lowery said. "He had a vision for this team and I feel like we hadn't lived up to that vision. I think today we did. ... He knew the potential of the team he put together."

Lowery said he wanted to play Saturday night, adding the speech was "very needed" and it was "outstanding how motivating it was."

"I'd say it was in the top three," said Tomlinson, who has heard quite a few speeches in his career.

These speeches are always interesting. After a win, they mean ever so much. But had Steelers tight end
Matt Spaeth
(playing for the injured
Heath Miller
) hung on to Roethlisberger's pass in the back of the end zone, Pittsburgh would have won on the second-to-last play of the game and nobody would have mentioned the speech.

How close was that pass to making the speech passe? It was intended for
Emmanuel Sanders
, not Spaeth, and Sanders was sure he was going to score.

"When you've got (Ben) scrambling, guys are just moving around," Sanders said. "Me and Spaeth ended up in the wrong ... I mean, in the right place at the same time. It didn't work out. ... I was real surprised. Because I was (thinking) game-winning touchdown."

But ... games are won and lost on these plays, and when Marcquice Cole broke up Roethlisberger's last pass (again to Spaeth), the Jets had stopped their slide. And they had done it impressively, by playing the kind of game the Steelers love to play.

New York was physical. It ran the ball (89 yards on 23 carries for Tomlinson and
Shonn Greene
). It played defense, especially in the second half, when it held the Steelers scoreless. And it was opportunistic, as veteran
Jason Taylor
took advantage of a baffling Steelers run call from their two in the fourth quarter to stop
Mewelde Moore
for a safety. Pittsburgh elected not to run straight ahead, but pulled a guard; Taylor followed the guard into the hole and easily tackled Moore. Those two points forced the Steelers to give the ball back to the Jets, used time and then meant Pittsburgh had to go for the touchdown to win rather than a field goal to tie.

This was Steelers football, played by the Jets, in Pittsburgh, in the snow and cold. Except it was the Jets playing that kind of football.

"It was a good chance for us to get back on track and get to where we wanted to be," Jets WR
Braylon Edwards
said. "Which is rolling toward the end of the season and the playoffs."

It was hard not to think of this hard-fought and well-played (zero turnovers) game as a playoff preview, a thought the Jets would happily support.

As Ryan told his players: "Put your little mark here. We may be back."